Fashion victims - the facts

Garment workers pay a high price to produce cheap clothes for the UK high street. Factories across many of the world's poorer countries produce clothes for retailers on the UK high street. Workers struggle to survive on extremely low pay, suffering appalling poor working conditions, excessive hours and are denied basic trade union rights.

In Bangladesh over three million people, 85% of whom are women, work in the garment industry. Our 2011 report Stitched Up into conditions in the garment industry found:

A garment factory helper’s wage starts at just £25 a month, with sewing operators earning just £32 a month – far below a living wage

80% of workers work until 8pm or 10pm, after starting at 8am – in excess of the legal limit on working hours

Three quarters of the women workers we spoke to had been verbally abused at work and half had been beaten

Our 2010 report, Taking Liberties, shows that the garment industry in India is deeply reliant on the sweatshop model of production and exploitation.

Factory helpers were paid £60 a month, less than half of the living wage

Workers at some factories worked up to 140 hours of overtime each month, working until 2am

60% of workers were unable to meet production targets – in one factory the target for each worker was to produce 20 ladies shirts every hour

For too long the UK government has supported purely voluntary initiatives for improving the rights of overseas workers. But there have been few steps taken to improve workers’ rights, pay or working conditions within these mechanisms.

Retailers cannot continue to pay lip service to corporate social responsibility whilst engaging in buying practices that systematically undermine the principles of decent work. War on Want will continue to hold to account those UK companies that exploit workers for their own profit.

Ultimately, however, the UK government must act to regulate the operations of its companies, both in the UK and overseas.

You can read more by following the links to our latest reports on the right hand side.

Never Again - Making Fashion's Factories Safe

Race to the Bottom

Stitched Up

Latest news

War on Want in The Times.A recent report by nine charities including RIAO-RDC, a Congolese NGO, and the western charities Grain and War on Want, levels a string of criticisms against Feronia, including allegations of land grabs, low pay and exploitation, writes Billy Kenber.

The government has serious case to answer when UK taxpayers’ money ends up in the coffers of a palm oil company linked to land grabs and labour violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The lack of oversight and due diligence is shocking, particularly when DFID is seeking to siphon off more of the public’s money to its private equity arm, CDC Group.